Pokemon: The final Journey
by matiwariat
Summary: After finishing with Sinnoh Ash leaves on his final journey to the unknown lands of the Unova region. As always he won't be alone but things will not go as smoothly as they did before... well... it will be harder than ever before...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"**Unova? Where is that?"**

The low whistling sound of Pikachu's sleeping became a continuous mantra of sorts as it blended with the swishing of the wind. Ash sat still on the grass under the single tree that grew behind professor Oak's house and watched as the Pokémon that over the years, throughout all his journeys, he had befriended. He had been doing a lot of thinking once he came back from his most recent 'adventure' in Sinnoh. Yet again he got so close to winning and failed again. It was a bitter sweet feeling, getting closer and closer each time yet not succeeding. Every time there was someone better than him.

Ash sighed tiredly as Pikachu stirred in his lap. He smiled and scratched the yellow rodent resulting in a sleepy 'Chaa...' to come from his friend. Now he had to think of what to do now. After six years of his journey as a Pokémon trainer the goal of a Pokémon master seemed further than ever, especially after realizing that the title was not a defined term. He would have to prove to everyone that he was...

"...the very best." Ash whispered and Pikachu's ears twitched as they picked up the sound but the Pokémon did not wake up and instead turned onto his other side _'Probably dreaming about ketchup again...' _

He leaned back onto the tree trunk and looked up at the flock of Pidgeys flying by. It was so peaceful here; his mother would probably love if he had stayed here. The option to become one of the frontier brains still stood but deep inside he felt that he still had things to do before he settled down. At least his future was settled so that was one thing less to worry about. He brought up his hand to massage his temple; thinking was never one of his stronger qualities. He never thought, he just did, and it worked pretty well so far considering all the dangerous situations he was in so far.

The smell of delicious food coming from the lab assaulted his nose and completely took over his mind. Ash jumped up with renewed energy, completely forgetting about Pikachu who got dumped onto the ground.

"Pikapi pika!" Ash was about to make excuses to his angry friend until he realised that Pikachu felt the smell of the food as well and started running towards the lab himself. Ash looked surprised at the fact that Pikachu did not shock him this time before breaking into a run himself.

It seemed that Ash's mother had decided, again, to come to the lab and make a meal for everyone. She had been doing so for the last couple of days since her son spent most of his time in the field with his Pokémon. Halfway through the meal professor Oak came in with a large smile on his face, directed straight at Ash who was so taken with the food that he did not notice the new person at the table.

"Ash, my boy, I see that you are getting quite bored these days. Have you thought what you want to do now?" Ash looked up from his plate and after a second shook his head slowly. Oak sighed and nodded. "I see. Well I'm sure you would be interested in hearing about a new league that has opened up to foreigners." Oak chuckled and Delia giggled when they saw that Oak had both Ash's and Pikachu's full attention.

"Is it a completely new region?""Pika?" Ash and Pikachu asked simultaneously.

"They had closed their borders over the past three years, shortly after their league was set up, due to a large problem with a criminal organisation they were trying to deal with but now that the threat is gone they opened up again." Ash nodded before smiling the same smile he wore when he just found a new challenge.

"So when am I leaving?" Oak chuckled at the eagerness in Ash's again and handed Ash an envelope.

"This is a plane ticket. We are flying from Saffron city airport in two days." Oak explained while Ash examined the ticket. He had never flown on a plane and Pikachu seemed just as excited as he was.

"Wait...we?" Oak quickly swallowed the mouthful of food before answering.

"Yes, I have some business to do in Unova myself so I will be going with you but don't worry. It is your journey and this old man won't impose on you for too long. After you get your pokedex we will part ways." Ash nodded enthusiastically and Delia could only sigh, her son would be going on another adventure and would not be coming back for at least another year.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

It was the morning two days later that Ash found himself in a bone breaking hug from his mother as Oak waited in his jeep outside his house.

"Mom...Mom! I... can't...breathe..." Delia opened her eyes and quickly released her hug. Ash took a deep breath and Pikachu snickered at him from the side.

"Just come back safely home Ash." This time it was Ash who hugged his mother who started sniffling even more.

"Don't worry mom! I will try my best not to get in any trouble this time." He quickly released the hug and ran to the car. Just as he got inside he heard his mother shout that same line again.

"Just don't forget to change your underwear!" Ash reddened and tried to sink into the car seat as Oak laughed in the seat beside him. Soon they both fell into silence as Oak focused on driving and Ash watched how much Kanto had changed over the years that he was gone. Maybe after he was finished with Unova he could come back and re-explore his home region? It didn't take long before both he and Pikachu fell asleep.

Meanwhile in the, now closed down, psychic type saffron city gym Sabrina was meditating with her Kadabra. Right now she was trying to see into the future as she did years ago but now she had to strain herself to see even into the nearest future. She did not want to think about it but she had to agree that having a split personality did boost her abilities but she could not give up now. A month ago she had a vision, a vision of the future that did not look good and it involved her past employer: Giovanni.

Suddenly Kadabra's mantra picked and she too focused her mind. Sabrina was well prepared for the sudden assault of images and quickly sorted through them until they settled on a single person. She smiled when she realised who it was. It seemed that her fate was more interweaved with Ash Ketchum's than either of them thought it was. Next stop for her would be Unova.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

The plane was not large, only fitting around fifty people at most, since they were not flying to the bigger cities and instead were travelling to Aspertia city where they would part their ways and Ash's new journey would start. Ash sighed as he looked out the window. Pikachu was already asleep on his lap and the professor had moved to sit with some old colleague of his to discuss Pokémon research. He was bored already and after sleeping the whole car ride here he probably would not be able to even take a nap.

"Sorry, is this seat taken?" Ash swivelled his head to the right, startled by the voice, to see who it was. His mouth imitated a Magikarp for a second before he got himself together.

"Uhm... no, no it isn't..." The woman smiled and sat down in the seat beside him. Ash turned back to the window but inside his head he kept thinking about the woman beside him. Something told him that he knew her from somewhere. The black hair and red eyes... wait... red eyes? There was only one person that he could remember vividly with red eyes and it was someone from his first journey through Kanto. That whole episode still sometimes haunted his nights as being turned into a doll was not a nice prospect for the future. He was about to voice his sudden discovery but she was faster.

"Exceptional deductions Ash. I didn't think you would remember me after all those years. I did as I have a lot to thank you for." She wanted to laugh at his expression but it would have embarrassed him even more. "Also your thoughts are flattering Ash..." At this he sputtered and turned red and this time she did laugh. It really was not his fault though, he was a teenage boy and her clothes were far more... revealing than the last time he saw her. The red jacket became a purple, sleeveless t-shirt and white pants. There were also the strange black bracelets around her wrists.

"H-how... how did you..." Sabrina smiled and tapped the side of her head with her finger.

"I'm sure you remember that I'm a psychic." She waited until he nodded. "I can read minds if I really want to." Ash snapped his mouth shut and nodded. His mind was still trying to figure this whole situation out. There were times when really strange and unusual things took place around him. As if he attracted them.

"What about the gym? Did you leave someone to take care of it?" Sabrina shook her head.

"No, I closed it down." She could see the shock on his face; it wasn't often that a gym just closed down. "I have business in Unova and it will take at least a year to finish. I also thought that Koichi deserved a chance to run his fighting dojo as the Saffron city gym at least until I come back."

A couple minutes later the plane was up in the air but the self proclaimed Pokémon master and the Psychic mistress of Saffron city were in a too deep conversation to notice.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Miles away Giovanni was listening to a report that made him both angry and somewhat frightened. That damn brat who continued to spoil his plans was going to Unova as if some higher being directed him to places where his operations were situated. Then there was the witch. One of the best lieutenants who ever worked under him. Then she decided to leave and he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop her, she was one of the few who could match him or even... the thought was hard to swallow... best him in a fight. Now she was suddenly on the move and apparently going to Unova as well. He had a nagging feeling inside him that kept telling him that this was not going to end well but he had to go through with his plans. Now he could only do his best to ensure that everything went according to plan.

"Get the team stationed in Unova to contact Plasma. Inform them of those two. Make sure that they are monitored at all times. Remove them if they become a threat." The grunt nodded and quickly walked out of the room to carry out his orders. Giovanni swivelled his chair around to look out the window of his newest facility.

"This time everything will go according to plan... my plan..." Persian purred in agreement from his side and Giovanni couldn't keep the victorious smirk from his face. Everything would be just fine...

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"**Enter Team Plasma!"**

"So this is where we part our ways, Ash." Sabrina said with a smile as they got out of the plane and onto the small landing strip near Aspertia city. The flight passed so quickly that neither of them really noticed it. It seemed that time really flew when one was having fun. Ash smiled back and said his goodbye while Pikachu did a little bow which earned him a scratch behind the ears.

After Sabrina left ash had to stay behind and wait for professor Oak. It took about five minutes and fro the whole plane to empty out before Oak got out with a smile on his face.

"That was a refreshing experience after travelling by boat all those years, wasn't it Ash?" Ash was not really paying much attention to the actual flight but he had to agree that it was much faster and it shook much less. It was similar to flying on the back of one of his pokemon, except for the wind getting in your face all the time. Oak walked forward with his suitcase in one hand and clasped his other on ash's shoulder. "Come on, professor Juniper has a visiting assistant in town that has your Pokedex. Bianca was her name I believe." Ash continued to listen as Oak described the Unova region while walking towards the pokemon centre where they were supposed to meet this girl.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Apparently professor Oak had no idea where the girl would be, them being totally new to the city did not help at all. After two hours the two decided to go to the nearby tourist view point in the northern part of the city to take a brake and cool down. The only thing they could do next was to find the pokemon centre and make a call to the professor. Ash was about to take out a bottle of water for Pikachu but stopped when he heard someone ask him something from his side.

"Hello? Ah... I'm sorry to bother you but I'm looking for a trainer who just arrived in this town. His name is... Ash Ketchup... uhm Ketchum." Both Ash and Oak jumped up when they heard the name. Oak released a sigh of relief; his old bones were not suited for those long searches anymore.

"It's me; my name is Ash Ketchum, from Kanto." He then motioned with his hand towards his yellow friend. "And this is Pikachu." The girl smiled but they could still see that she was slightly unsure. Oak quickly deduced that it was probably her first time dealing with trainers outside the lab.

"That's great! I have been looking for you all over..." She trailed off and reached into her bag. She adjusted her glasses before handing Ash an object which was as familiar as every version he owned before but the differences were easy to see. He flipped it open, revealing a much more advanced design with a double screen. "This is your Pokedex... uhm I suppose you know that already. Well, it was preloaded with all your past discoveries as well as the up to date Pokemon knowledge. Otherwise it's a normal Pokedex." Ash nodded and closed it up before storing it in his pocket as he always did. Bianca then reached into her bag again and took out a small rectangular package and handed it to Ash again. "This is your 'starter' package. A set of pokeballs, a map and an official badge case." Ash took the package and smiled after a very enthusiastic 'Thanks!' which probably startled the poor blonde girl. Ash turned around when he heard Oak speak.

"Well Ash, the first gym is in this city actually so you can start right now. I and Bianca will be leaving now since I need to talk to professor Juniper in person." Ash nodded and started to walk away, Pikachu running right behind him. "Do your best Ash!" Oak called out.

"I will professor! You don't have to worry about that!" Ash shouted as he slowly disappeared from view and into the city with Pikachu on his shoulder. Oak sighed as he watched the kid he considered his second grandson go off on another adventure.

"Uhm...he is very enthusiastic..." Bianca supplied shyly. Oak chuckled heartily before grabbing the bag in which he carried his research and poetry from its spot on the ground.

"That he is. One of his best qualities, he never gives up."

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"So Pikachu, what do you think we should do now?" Ash asked his partner as he strolled through the streets of Aspertia city.

"Pikapi, pika! Pika ka pika chu!" Pikachu spoke from his perch, the fast gesticulations of his small paws adding to the comedic effect of the whole view to anyone who passed the duo. Ash nodded, getting the general idea of what Pikachu meant to say.

"I know you could take on that first gym all by yourself but I think we should start building the team early and don't give me that look!"

"Pika!" It sounded like an accusation from Pikachu's side. Ash scowled and shook his head.

"No, I didn't hit my head on anything. I...I just want to do everything right this time." Ash finished with a bit of a sad tone and Pikachu patted him on the head. Ash couldn't help but smile at his best friend. He took out his Pokedex again and turned it on. "It seems that the first gym is a normal type gym. So we should be looking for a fighting type pokemon." Pikachu stayed silent and listened to Ash's musings until they reached the Pokecentre. Ash walked up to the desk and raised an eyebrow when he saw Nurse Joy.

"Is everything fine?" She asked, startling Ash a bit. He quickly smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry but you look much different than the nurse Joys in the other regions." Joy giggled into her hand and nodded with a knowing smile.

"We get it all the time from trainers from across the sea. The whole system here is new so we also got new uniforms."Ash apologised again before asking the question which just came to him.

"Uhm, I suppose you wouldn't know where I could catch a fighting type pokemon around here?" Joy tapped her chin a few times before apparently coming up with an answer.

"I believe that a large group of Riolu have moved into the area around Floccesy ranch. If you hurry up then you might make it there and back before the night sets." She did not get to finish as Ash was already gone with a 'Thanks' over his shoulder.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Nurse Joy wasn't lying and Ash reached Floccesy ranch by late afternoon. The gates were not closed and it seemed that the whole place was open to visitors. Now he would have to find a Riolu. He could clearly see the herds of Mareeps and the flocks of the Unova's native flying types. Ash took out his Pokedex and aimed it at one of the flying types.

"_Pidove, this very forgetful Pokémon will wait for a new order from its Trainer even though it already has one."_ Came out the electronic voice of the Pokedex as more information appeared on the screen. Part of him wanted to catch it but another reminded him that he was here for a reason. It seemed that the only way to find what he was looking for was to venture deeper into the nearby forest. Who knows, maybe he would get lucky?

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"You morons! I gave you such an easy job. Captu...Free a single Herdier but instead of doing what you were told you ran at the sight of some rookie trainers!" The two Plasma grunts cowered in fear in front of their superior. Earlier today they were tasked with freeing a pokemon from the ranch but they chickened out when they were discovered by a pair of trainers. It wasn't their fault really. They tried their best but they still had not received their pokemon and would not have been able to do anything in a fight. The leader of the group faced the two rookies while the other ten or so grunts turned their attention to listen.

"We are running out of time and we need to bring results. Retrieve any pokemon you can from the ranch. The same goes for all of you!" He commanded with a sneer and fixed his uniform. He turned around and stalked off to their current base of operations as the grunts behind him chorused a 'Yes sir!" and scrambled to their new task.

Much further away and out of their eyesight stood Sabrina. She wasn't even trying to hide as she knew they would not be able to see her. Psychic abilities were proving useful again as she clearly heard everything that went on in that camp. It wasn't the best find ever but hopefully it would lead somewhere. She located the duo of grunts which seemed like the best bet and started to follow them at a safe distance.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

It was an hour since they had set off on the Riolu search and Pikachu was sure that his trainer had managed to get them lost... again. He continued to walk forward until he crashed into something. Looking up he noticed that it was Ash that he bumped into. His trainer stood still with a strange expression on his face.

"Pika?" It took Ash a couple seconds and tug on his pants to realise that Pikachu was asking him something.

"Uh... Pikachu? You wanted something?" Ash asked, still looking around the forest with confusion written on his face.

"Pikapi Pika ka chu?" It took a bit longer to figure out what Pikachu said this time.

"I'm not sure Pikachu... I have this feeling inside me that is telling me to go somewhere, as if someone needed my help." Pikachu appeared to be thinking for a few seconds before apparently figuring out the puzzle. Using his best acting skills he tried to imitate, what Ash later realised was a, Riolu using an Aura Sphere. Something snapped together in Ash's head.

"So you think it might be the Aura?" Pikachu nodded with his arms folded as if it was an indisputable fact. Ash's face set into a serious expression, or as serious as Ash ever got, before he took off in the direction where he felt the 'distress signal' coming from, Pikachu hot on his heels.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Come on little guy, come with us peacefully..." One of the plasma grunts said while the other stood a bit further behind, acting as a lookout. The 'little guy' was a pretty strange looking Riolu which was currently being cornered against a rock outcrop by the men wearing black.

The Riolu was not called an emanation pokemon without reason. He could feel that no matter what the man in front of him was saying, he did not mean good. His parents had drilled it into him that many trainers would try to catch him in the future and that at some point he would have to choose a good person to go with, so he could better himself. He was taught to use his aura to search deep into a person's soul, a place where they could not hide their true intentions. Now he found himself in a situation he was warned about and it seemed that this time he would not escape.

The grunt growled in frustration when the shiny Riolu they managed to find by some miracle had again refused to move from his spot. He tensed his legs and leapt for the pokemon.

"Pikachu, Volt Tackle!" A voice shouted from the tree line and the grunt did not even get to turn his head as a Pikachu covered in electricity tackled him in the stomach. The grunt flew across the grass until he finally came to a stop, paralyzed and passed out. When the other grunt turned around he had to take a step back as no less than a meter away was standing a very mad Pikachu, clearly ready to fire of a close range Thunder.

Ash was about to tell Pikachu to paralyze the remaining Plasma member when the grunt suddenly dropped straight down and upon closer inspection was clearly in a very deep sleep. Ash did not need to wait for long as a while later Sabrina stepped out from between the trees, Kadabra right behind her. She walked up to him smiling warmly all the way.

"So it seems we meet again Ash." Ash had to agree but it felt kind of weird that she appeared just out of nowhere... "Don't worry, I am not stalking you." She said with a laugh. "My business in Unova has to deal with those people..." Here she pointed at the Plasma grunts. "And not in the good way." Ash couldn't help but shiver at the way she finished that sentence, part of him wondered if she still changed people into dolls... He turned around when he heard Pikachu talk with what appeared to be a strangely coloured Riolu. The colours of its fur were flipped with the main body being bright golden with bits of black and deep blue. Slowly he made his towards him while Sabrina took care of her matters. She started off by levitating the two grunts a bit further away.

"Hey there..." The Riolu pushed a bit further into the wall and Ash stopped moving and put up his hands to show that he meant no harm. Pikachu started to explain as well and the dog pokemon seemed to slowly calm down. When their eyes connected ash felt as if someone was peering into the deepest corners of his soul.

What happened next came as a surprise when suddenly the Riolu received a sudden boost of confidence and stepped forward, ready to fight. Ash looked to Pikachu questioningly and Pikachu quickly explained that Riolu wanted to fight, to see if Ash was a worthy trainer. Ash jumped up with a smirk and backed away as Pikachu readied himself.

"Ok then Pikachu! If Riolu wants a battle then we will give him one!" All three of them were now pumped and ready for the fight; even Sabrina stopped whatever she was doing to watch. "Start off with quick attack into an iron tail!" Pikachu nodded and launched into a quick attack, dashing from side to side and towards Riolu who stood unmoving as a rock. When he got close enough his tail started to glow and when the attack was about to connect Riolu went on the offensive.

The little pokemon spun around and grabbed Pikachu by the Tail and threw him full force into the rock behind him. Riolu winced a little as the Iron tail seemed to have damaged his paws a little but the counter did its job. Before the dust even settled the aura pokemon swung around with his leg and was about to go in with a blaze kick.

"Pikachu! He is right between you and me, Agility and then hit him with a volt tackle!" As soon as Ash finished speaking Riolu finished his attack but his kick was met by broken stone. Pikachu was instantly behind him and tackled him straight into the wall. Riolu tried to get up but found that he was paralyzed. Ash smirked and expanded one of the pokeballs from his belt. He didn't waste time and threw it instantly.

Riolu closed his eyes as the red beam sucked him into the ball. He didn't even try to fight it and let himself be captured. Deep inside him he knew that this was a good choice. He reached his limit in the wild and by himself but maybe this trainer would lead him to bigger things.

Ash was thinking about his newest capture when the sound of clapping reached his ears. He turned around and saw it was Sabrina.

"That was a great capture Ash and a shiny as well. I wish I could stay and talk longer but I have... matters to attend to." She walked away a bit before stopping. "Until we meet again Ash." And then she was gone.

Ash looked up to the sky and saw that it would get dark soon. Well there was no better time than now to get back to the pokecentre to rest up and then do some training tomorrow.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

The plasma grunt forced his eyes open and groaned in pain as he tried to feel his muscles. Quickly he realised that he was tied to a tree, right beside his partner. The area was covered in complete darkness and silence until two sets of glowing eyes came out of the shadow right in front of him. It was a woman and a pokemon he had never seen before. She kneeled in front of him and pushed his chin up so she could look him in the eyes. He recoiled back when their gazes met.

"Now you will tell me exactly what I want to know... "She placed her hand against his head and he struggled in her grasp. The struggles died down as his eyes rolled into the back of their sockets.

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"**Trouble on the Horizon."**

Ash looked between his two pokemon and the gym building in front of him. They trained heavily the previous day and he was amazed at Riolu's strengt and hopefully their work on force palm would work out for them.

"Are you ready Riolu?" Ash asked and the small pokemon squared his shoulders and nodded while hitting his chest with his paw to show that he would be ready for anything. Ash smiled as he looked at his new friend. He was surprised the day before when during training it listened to his every word and advice as if it was a creed. It seemed that even though it was such a small pokemon it had a very serious nature and great dedication to hard work. He fit into the team perfectly.

Ash walked through the wooden doors and was surprised to find that the gym was actually a pokemon school. Not wanting to interrupt he quickly followed the signs that led him to the back of the building where he saw multiple small pitches and who he assumed was the gym leader talking with some trainers. When he got closer the gym leader turned around to meet the new comer. He looked ash over and smiled.

"I suppose you are a pokemon trainer and came here for the badge?" Ash nodded and Riolu stepped forward from behind him.

"My name is Ash Ketchum from Kanto and I challenge you to a gym battle." The leader fixed his blue tie before smirking.

"Very well. My name is Cheren." Cheren took his place at the opposite side of the pitch while the other trainers moved to the sidelines to watch. Even some of the students came outside to watch. One of the older trainers walked up to the middle to referee the match.

"This will be a one on one battle with no substitutions for the Basic badge. The gym leader starts." The flag went down and Cheren threw a pokeball onto the field while Riolu ran forward from Ash's side. Ash looked on as a pokemon he saw and battled in the wild the day before, a Patrat, emerged on the other side.

"Ok Patrat, start of easy with a work up!" The rodent nodded as a red energy started to envelop him.

"Riolu, quick attack into force palm just like Pikachu!" Riolu nodded before dashing off into a quick attack. Just as he reached the rodent he reared his palm as white light started to emanate from it. Cheren's eyes widened for a second before he quickly shouted for Patrat to use detect and then dodge. Riolu's hand smashed into the ground pushing up a cloud of dust.

"Patrat! Tackle then hang onto him with bite." Riolu tried to counter but was too slow and stumbled back with the rodent stuck to his leg. Ash had to quickly come up with something.

"Riolu, jump into the air and blaze kick into the ground!" Riolu nodded through the pain and jumped as high as he could before performing a blaze kick. The momentum made him spin on the way down and the fire created a small shield around him, preventing anyone from seeing what was really happening inside. When the two pokemon crashed into the ground no one could see the result because of the smoke.

"Riolu! Are you ok?!" Ash called out from the sidelines. Riolu stumbled out just as the smoke cleared showing a clearly knocked out Patrat with burns all over his body. Riolu's only real damage seemed to be the nasty bite wound on his leg. Ash quickly ran over and picked Riolu up into a hug which startled the poor pokemon.

"You did great Riolu! The hard work did pay off." Riolu could only nod. Cheren thanked his pokemon for the fight as it was sucked into his pokeball and walked over to Ash with a badge in his hand.

"I believe this belongs to you Ash. Although I am a bit discouraged after losing three battles in two days I still have to say that this was a good match." Ash took the badge and placed it into his box before leaving for the Pokecentre with Riolu in his pokeball and Pikachu sleeping in his large backpack. It was only yesterday after buying all the supplies from the list that Brock had left him at the end of his last journey that he realised how much he had to carry around while travelling.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Sabrina smiled as she finally extracted the last information from the sixth grunt she managed to defeat over the past two days. They did not know much and she never expected them to but at least she knew where she would be going next. Apparently plasma had a larger gathering in Virbank city where they were securing a route for transport to Castelia city. The quicker she got to the bottom of this the quicker she could deal with team rocket and then she would finally be free...

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Ash had been walking for nearly a whole day now after sleeping out in the woods. It still felt strange; travelling alone, without any human companions that is. Talking with his pokemon only got him so far and he missed Brock's cooking a lot. Still it was fun, a new journey all by himself. A test to see if he can do it and it kicked off really well. He was here for less than a week and so far there was no team rocket in sight and one badge was already in his possession. His smiled widened and his walk quickened, he had to get to Virbank city. What Ash did not see was a dark shadow observing him from between the trees. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared while making no sound at all.

After signing in at the Pokecentre ash quickly asked for a room for a few nights. Apparently professor Oak had called in on the video phone and asked Nurse Joy to deliver a message to Ash whenever he arrived. It seemed that Bianca had forgotten to explain part of the Pokedex functionality which actually listed the natural habitats of pokemon and was able to produce a list of possible pokemon one could find in an area. Ash had to agree with Oak that it sounded really useful and he would probably use it in the future but for now the invitation of the soft bed and the fluffy pillows was too much for him and both he and Pikachu succumbed to sleep within minutes.

In the morning Ash decided to have a look around, the town was clearly a port town full of docks and hangars. Apparently north of the city there were the Pokestar Studios but neither him nor his pokemon were into movie making, especially now. According to the map and the Pokedex the Virbank complex was situated in the southern part of town and while it didn't have any pokemon which held his interest ash decided it might be worth to visit it later.

Ash was not the smartest of people but even he knew that for a town like this there should be a lot more traffic, both on land and especially on water but it seemed as if everything has pretty much stopped. Deciding to check it out he followed Pikachu to the port area where he found two young trainers being cornered by a group of the same people he defended Riolu from.

"No! We won't let you take our Pokemon! You are not freeing anyone; you are just a bunch of thieves!" Shouted the girl with the two hair buns on her head while the black haired boy barely restrained himself from adding some words of his own. The plasma member without a face mask stepped forward and chuckled with a crazed smile on his face.

"There is nothing you can do little girl, give up your pokemon now! Both of you or you know what will happen..." Ash had enough of listening in from his hiding spot and quickly released Riolu before running in towards the trouble.

"Please tell me what will happen? I know the likes of you and they always end up losing!" Ash shouted angrily, Riolu and Pikachu running in front of him and settling into their combat stances. The plasma leader was about to say something before he took in Ash in full. His eyes widened in realisation before they turned to pure rage. He unclasped a pokeball from his belt and the four grunts behind him did the same.

"Fine, have it your way! Weezing, make sure there is nothing left of him!" A second later Ash was facing an overwhelming force as he watched the Weezing, two Sevipers and two trash like pokemon emerge from their pokeballs. Normally he would have strived for a somewhat fair fight but years of defending from team rocket and all the other organisations had thought him that they didn't play fair. His assumption was confirmed when Riolu had to use a blaze kick directed straight at him instead of at his pokemon. All rules just went down the window.

"Agility then volt tackle Pikachu! Quick attack and force palm Riolu. Smash that Weezing into the Sevipers!" Ash shouted as he dropped behind some created to escape an acid spray from one of the trash pokemon. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest as he watched the acid dissolve some of the concrete he was just standing on. The trash pokemon seemed to have stayed behind for now at least so he would deal with them last. He looked to the side and saw that the two younger trainers have hid as well. Just then Ash saw as Pikachu's volt tackle had sent the Weezing flying straight into one of the Sevipers which was being launched from the other side by a long range force palm.

Just as Ash was about to shout his next command the two trainers released a pokemon each. One was clearly a water pokemon running on two legs; it had whiskers on its face and two strange shells attached to his legs while the other one was a chubby fire type with an orange and black colouring and tusks. Ash looked on as what he assumed where the regions starters jumped into the fight to help out his pokemon.

"Counter that crunch Riolu, Pikachu finish Weezing with a Thunder before he self destructs!" He didn't even need a response from his pokemon as they adjusted their own tactics to Ash's observations. The Seviper which launched itself at Riolu with its jaws wide open ended up face first in concrete as Riolu grabbed it at the last second and spun around before smashing it into the floor. Pikachu tensed and shot a small lightning bolt into the sky which a second later came down as a huge thunderbolt, the Weezing stood no chance and Ash hoped that with the noise and explosions that the police would arrive soon.

Ash looked up again and saw that the Sevipers and the Weezing were knocked out while the two trash pokemon were... fighting each other? He looked around to see what was happening and smiled when he saw a Kadabra standing in the shadow of one of the alleys with his arms fully outstretched towards the two pokemon. The grunts had no idea what was going on and started to scramble away when the sound of police sirens echoed across the street. The leader looked straight at ash with pure hatred in his eyes before turning around and realising some type of flying pokemon that ash could not recognise, jumping on its back and flying off. Ash would have tried to stop him but Pikachu and Riolu were busy making sure that none of the grunts escaped.

A minute later an officer Jenny with a Herdier was already putting away the plasma grunts into her car. Ash was again surprised when he saw the much different uniforms and assumed that the reason was the same as Nurse Joy's. He had expected to be questioned about the whole thing as there was some significant property damage done but it seemed that him fighting against this 'team plasma' and in defence of two rookie trainers was enough to save him from any questioning. Jenny secured the pokemon into a separate, locked container and then locked the back doors of the van.

Ash sighed as he leaned against the railings of the dock. It seemed that trouble had followed him again but at least his pokemon were alright. Riolu got poisoned but it wasn't anything that a quick antidote, given to him by Jenny, couldn't fix. During the fight he was outnumbered but apparently the plasma grunts were in so much shock that someone actually opposed them that they could not focus properly. Pikachu also told him that the pokemon seemed as if they did not want to do what they did, that they were forced into the fight.

"Uhm... Hello?" Ash looked up and saw that the girl he just helped out was standing in front of him with a bright smile on her face. "I just wanted to thank you... you know for helping us out."

"That's no problem! Name's Ash. Ash Ketchum." Ash said as he extended his hand and she grabbed it with her own and shook it excitedly. She seemed to hold more energy than Ash did and that was something to say.

"My name is Rosa! I just started my pokemon journey and gotten my second badge before those thugs got to me and Hugh." Ash assumed that 'Hugh' was that black haired boy which was nowhere to be seen now. "What about you? You don't look like someone from here and you must be a good trainer to have defeated all of them with just two pokemon." Ash chuckled nervously as the girl was getting more and more into his face, it seemed that she was very curious but he was sure that he was similar six years back when he was her age and had just started his first journey.

"Well you are right, I'm from Kanto and I decided to come here to compete in the Unova league. This is Pikachu, my starter. We've been working together for over six years now." She continued asking him questions and he told her whatever he deemed good enough for the story. In the end he gave her a few tips for the road before they parted ways. Ash towards the Pokecentre and Rosa towards one of the boats to travel over the water and to Castelia city.

On the way to the Pokecentre his stomach decided to voice announce that it was hungry and Ash couldn't help it. When he got to the Pokecentre he left Pikachu and Riolu with Nurse Joy for healing while he left to get some food for all three of them. As soon as he entered the cafeteria he noticed the black hair and the Kadabra sitting at one of the tables. Walking up quickly he slid into the seat opposite Sabrina. She lifted her head from the paper she was reading and tried to look surprised but they both knew that she knew that he was coming here.

"Hello Ash, it seems we have a tendency of running into each other don't we?" she said before taking a sip of her coffee. Ash smirked and nodded.

"True, I also have to thank you for what happened earlier today at the docks. It would have been much harder to deal with if you did not help." He expected her to laugh at it or deny it based on how the 'new' Sabrina behaved so far but was slightly alarmed when her face turned completely serious and her eyes asked him to wait for her to finish speaking.

"Your meeting with team plasma this morning might have been accidental but now they will not let you go." Ash was confused, why would they not let him go? "You probably did not notice but the leader who managed to escape knew who you were. I was able to snatch snippets from inside his head and he knew a lot about you and a lot about me..." She took a breath and shook her head. "You must have stepped on Giovanni's toes badly if he decided to share information about you." The name brought Ash out of his shock.

"Giovanni? You mean team rocket's leader?" Sabrina nodded sadly.

"I've had... conflicts with team rocket over the years and have come here to see what they were up to together with team plasma. Giovanni must have seen you moving to Unova and decided to... remove you." Ash slumped in his seat. Team rocket was still very much active and now they would be going after him. Why did every time he just wanted for things to go right he had to get into some mess? Ash was sure that if his mother knew of all of this then she would have probably ordered him straight back home. Sabrina shook her head again. "That won't do, they would just come for you there. You and everyone else are actually safer wherever they are right now." He wanted to be angry at her for reading his thoughts again but he was too tired to argue anything. He stood up and started to walk away from the table but was stopped by Sabrina's hand on his arm. He looked down at her and she seemed to be actually sorry for upsetting him. She released a heavy sigh before looking down into her coffee. "If you need anything Ash then I'm staying in this city until tomorrow evening. Then I'm leaving for Castelia city." Ash didn't respond and just walked out of the cafeteria and Sabrina could only hope that she did not make herself a new enemy.

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"Are you ready Pikachu?" Ash asked his companion as they stood before the doors to where his next gym battle would be. As soon as he pushed the doors open the overly loud music blasted out from the inside. The bouncer standing inside looked at him funnily but said nothing as ash walked down the stairs to where the music club was actually situated. Another flight of stairs and a set of double doors later Ash finally found himself at the right place. It was quite empty, seeing as it was early in the morning. The gym leader, Roxie, was playing with her band on the stage situated right in front of the battling pitch. Ash made his way up to the stage and thankfully she had noticed him and Pikachu, Ash had doubts he would have been able to her attention through all this noise.

"I think we have a new challenger!" She shouted into the microphone which immediately got everyone's attention. Ash smirked as she jumped down from the stage.

"Name's Ash Ketchum from Kanto! I'm here for the toxic badge!" Roxie was now sporting a matching smirk on her face.

"Kanto? That's great! One of the pokemon I caught there inspired me to start a band, you know. Well take your spot and get ready to lose!" One of the other band members jumped down and took the referee spot as Ash and Roxie took their spots and readied their pokeballs.

"This will be a two on two match for the Toxic badge between gym leader Roxie of Virbank city and challenger Ash Ketchum of Kanto! Go!" The flag went down and the men stepped back as Ash and Roxie released their pokemon. Ash was surprised as he saw the Koffing on Roxie's side but he knew that Riolu would be able to deal with it.

"Riolu start with quick at..." He didn't finish as he heard Roxie's command.

"Clear smog Koffing, cover the whole field!" Koffing tensed before floating a bit higher and starting to breathe out large amounts of fog. Ash could not see Riolu and Riolu probably could not see much either. "Follow up with a gyro ball!" Ash felt that Riolu would be in real trouble if Riolu was hit by that. He saw as Koffing started to spin in place and prepare his attack before he launched at a spot within the fog.

"Riolu he is moving from the stage! Try to stop it with force palm!" He hoped that Riolu had heard him as the gyro ball disappeared in the fog. The spinning Koffing must have acted as a fan as the fog quickly dispersed to show Riolu with both his arms in front of him, holding back the still spinning Koffing. Riolu was pushed back slightly before with a cry of pain was launched back.

"Finish it with sludge bomb Koffing!" The sludge missile was launched even before Riolu hit the ground and it seemed that it was the end of the fight.

"Riolu! Riolu can you hear me?!" Ash shouted, hoping that his pokemon was still not knocked out and could hear him. Both Ash and Roxie were shocked when the Area was bathed in white light and out of the rubble stepped out a much taller pokemon. Ash eyes widened for a second before he smirked. "Awesome Lucario! This shouldn't be hard now, go in with a force palm and follow up with a blaze kick." The newly evolved Lucario looked at his trainer before nodding and launching into a run at full speed. The Koffing didn't know what hit him as a double force palm hit him straight on. Roxie could see her pokemon start falling down and knew that it was paralysed. Lucario then jumped up and sent the Koffing straight into the ground with a finishing blaze kick.

"Lucario wins! Roxie please send out your next pokemon!" Roxie took out another pokeball.

"Well Ash you had your fun but it's time to turn this show over around for a victory! Go Scolipede!" Ash had to take out his Pokedex to check out the new pokemon. It was silent as it registered the new pokemon before the electronic voice spoke up.

"_Scolipede, the Megapede Pokémon. Scolipede catches its opponents with great speed and attacks using horns on its head. Scolipede is highly aggressive and will not give up until victorious." _

"You heard that Lucario? Well we won't give up either!" Lucario nodded but a second later winced and stumbled forward a bit. Ash frowned; the sludge bomb must have poisoned Lucario before he evolved and while the steel type had negated the poison after the evolution but the damage was done already. "Are you sure you can keep going?" He asked more quietly with a hint of concern but Lucario set his shoulders straight again and nodded ignoring the pain. "Ok then! Let's see how fast it is then. Quick attack into blaze kick." Roxie winced when the blaze kick connected and her Scolipede cried out in pain.

"Finish it with a Venoshock!" Scolipede screeched before spitting green acid like substance at Lucario who was trying to get a breather.

"Try to endure Lucario!" The fighting type braced himself as the acid hit him. The acid sprayed around him but did nothing other than stain his golden fur. Lucario shakily put his foot forward and was about to rush in when the next attack came.

"Finish him with rollout!" Ash could only watch as the Scolipede curled into a ball, its segmented body connecting perfectly, and smashed Lucario into the ground. The fighting type had no chance against the attack and so Ash recalled him back into the pokeball with a sad smile.

"Scolipede wins! Challenger please send out your next pokemon!" Ash looked towards Pikachu who stood by his side eagerly waiting for his turn. Ash nodded and Pikachu's cheeks sparked before he ran out onto the field.

"An electric type? Use rock tomb!" Ash didn't even need to instruct Pikachu as he used agility to escape the rock tomb. Pikachu would probably not get a chance to stay still to power up any of his moves and Scolipede was just fine staying at long range unless...

"Pikachu use quick attack and jump onto its back!" Pikachu nodded and used its speed to dodge a venoshock sent his way before he jumped on Scolipede's back and hanged on as hard as he could. "Good! Now thunder!" Roxie tried to shout for Scolipede to shake the rodent off but it was too late. "Now finish it with Iron tail!"

"Pikaaachu!" Pikachu shouted as he jumped up and with a spin smashed his glowing tail into Scolipede's head, smacking the bug pokemon flat onto the ground. The referee walked over and checked to make sure that Scolipede was knocked out.

"Pikachu wins! The victory goes to the challenger, Ash Ketchum!" Roxie sighed when she heard those words but she knew that she gave it all she had. She walked up to Ash who was now congratulating Pikachu for the fight.

"This stinks, but I gave it all I had." She pushed the badge into Ash's hand. "Here! Proof that you beat me. Keep going like that and you will get far." Ash nodded with a smile. Now he was a badge closer to his goal. For now though he would have to take Lucario and Pikachu to the Pokecentre and ask nurse joy to heal both of them. After that he still had to talk with someone.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Sabrina sighed as she stood at the pier, leaning against the railing with her bag on her bag hanging on her shoulder. Today's ship to Castelia city would be leaving soon but for now she was waiting for someone. Tangled in her thoughts she did not see that person come up to her side and possibly for the first time in years was 'surprised'.

"You said you wanted to see what they were up to... are you going to try to stop whatever they are doing? Team plasma and rocket I mean." Sabrina whipped her head and saw that it was ash. He was leaning against the railing as well and was looking out into the sea with a calm and surprisingly collected face.

"Yes, whatever they are doing is surely going to lead to something bad and I want to stop them before it gets out of hand." She did not explain why she really wanted to stop them and part of her knew that Ash did not believe her completely. After their meeting she refrained from reading his thoughts, it was not the time or place for this.

"Then... I'm coming with you. You said that they won't stop coming after me... I will not hide or run away. I will face them head on and deal with it once and for all." He abruptly stood up, conviction written all over his face. Pikachu tried to imitate it but it looked more like a caricature. Sabrina stood straight as well and watched as Ash started walking.

"Ash..." She called after him but it seemed he was trying to prove that she could not change his mind. "Ash, the boat it the other way..." Sabrina stifled a laugh as she watched him stop mid step. He then turned around and walked past her as if nothing happened. She easily caught up to him but he still would not look at her. "You had that whole speech prepared didn't you?" this time she laughed when he blushed lightly and after a couple of seconds even he couldn't help himself and started laughing as well. In his defence she did have a nice laugh, it was infectious.

After boarding the boat and leaving their baggage in their rooms they both met up near the back. Together they watched the city slowly disappear from view.

"I assume that there is something big going on in Castelia city?" Asked ash and Sabrina gave a short nod.

"I didn't get much from the grunts. They were only told the basic information but I know that there is something big going on under the city and team rocket is involved." After that they both stayed silent and watched the water until it turned dark and became too cold to stay outside.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Sir we know the exact location of his mother. All it would take is one order and the brat would hand himself over to us without a second thought." One of the rocket officers said yet again in the past two days. The leader of team rocket though disagreed again without giving any particular reasons. The rocket sighed and left Giovanni's office to attend to his other duties and left the man alone to deal with his problems. Giovanni sighed and petted Persian on the head before swinging in his chair and opening the single file sitting on his desk. Inside was a picture that brought memories from a long forgotten past. _"Delia..."_

**To Be Continued...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

The slow, rhythmic movement of the waves was hypnotising but it could have been the early time rather than the water that occupied his mind. The captain had announced through the speakers mounted around the deck less than an hour ago that they would be docking in Castelia city just at the break of dawn. Pikachu was still sleeping, probably hugging an empty ketchup bottle he had for dinner. Ash though, couldn't sleep and so decided to get some fresh air. It could be the excitement at getting to the next gym or the underlying fear of what they would find underneath the city, maybe both.

It was strange in a way, he had won in so many gyms before yet it still excited him as if it was the first proper pokemon battle he had all those years ago against Brock. On the other hand the threat presented by Plasma and the Rockets seemed bigger than ever. Ash rubbed his face tiredly and yawned. He really should have stayed in bed and gotten some sleep. Sabrina was right in saying that the next few days would be taxing on them both if her visions were correct.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Finally woke up I see." Ash said as Pikachu slowly climbed onto his shoulder. The yellow mouse yawned before mumbling under his nose about something that Ash did not catch. Backpack and pokemon ready Ash was now waiting for the boat to dock. He had started to tremble with anticipation as soon as he saw the cityscape. Even now it looked much larger than Saffron city and apparently Unova was full of such sprawling cities.

The moment the boat touched the lining of the wooden pier Sabrina appeared just beside him, standing as if she didn't appear just moments before. They had agreed to start at the pokemon centre first to settle their sleeping arrangements and then explore the city while looking for anything unusual. Ash though knew that it wouldn't take long for them to find what they were looking for, it never did and all his previous travelling companions would agree that he was a trouble magnet but in the end it always proved to be the source for the greatest of adventures.

"We should get going, the faster we are done with the 'business' side of things the faster you can challenge the gym and yes, it is a beautiful sight." Sabrina laughed when Ash sent a glare at her direction; she did say that she wouldn't read his thoughts after all. "Ash, it's not my fault that you wear your heart at your sleeve, I did not have to read your mind." That little smirk on her face made his eyebrow twitch but he willed his temper down knowing that she was right and instead settled on silently following after the psychic mistress.

The journey to the pokemon centre was short as it was located just beside the pier their ship had docked at but even from here they could took peaks further into the city. When the automatic doors opened they found the pokemon centre to be quite empty. Nurse Joy was clearly bored with her current job of filing through the stacks of documents of her desk. Their arrival remained unnoticed until they were right in front of the front desk. Neither Sabrina nor Ash could hide their mirth when Pikachu jumped down onto the desk and startled the poor girl.

"Oh my... I'm really sorry I did not notice you." Joy took in a long breath and seeing the questioning look coming from the boy continued her explanation. "The past few weeks have been really tiring; we have wild injured pokemon coming in every hour and no one can come up with an explanation as to why it is happening..." When she tried to rub out the sleep out of her eyes Ash turned his head to Sabrina and she nodded. "...Oh well, I shouldn't worry you with all that. What is it that you need?"

"Two single rooms for a few days." Sabrina's reply was short and to the point, the sooner they left the sooner they would find out what was happening with the wild pokemon.

Nurse Joy smiled and, after registering them both in the system, handed them two keys. As they walked into the elevator to reach their rooms Ash decided to look up wild pokemon locations within and around the city.

"It seems that all wild pokemon here congregate inside the sewers and around the outlets outside the city so that would be a good start." Sabrina nodded, she would have came up with a similar conclusion but it still amazed her to see how much Ash had changed since he left her gym. He was still rash and stubborn and friendly as ever but she could see he was much more experienced than before, he had grown up.

"We will head over to the nearest sewer entrance after we leave our bags." Ash nodded before stopping at his door, he was about to open them but stopped for just a second.

"I will try calling Professor Oak once we are downstairs; I feel we might need some extra help." He knew Sabrina heard him but did not wait for a response.

It took him only a couple of minutes to place his things down and get back down to the ground floor. The video phone was unoccupied when Ash got down and it didn't take long for him to call the lab in Pallet town. He was quite surprised when it wasn't Professor Oak that answered the call.

"Gary?" Ash blinked a couple times and shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Why are you so surprised Ashy-boy? This is my home..." Gary smirked when he heard Ash growl at the old nickname.

"I know, I just thought that you were still in Sinnoh. I suppose Professor Oak is not there?" Gary shook his head in response.

"He is still in Unova, the research is taking more time than he expected so he asked me to come back to run the lab for a couple weeks." Ash sighed but nodded in understanding. "So what do you need, I'm sure this isn't a social call." This time they both were smiling, they would have talked more to catch up but Ash knew that he did not have the time.

"Could you send Quilava over?" Gary gave Ash a sharp nod and disappeared for a few minutes. It took him a couple minutes to come back and transfer the pokeball.

"Thanks Gary! I gotta go, so we'll catch up later!" Gary looked at the screen when he heard Ash shout and saw who seemed to be Ash's newest travelling companion. The pokemon researcher in learning dropped into his chair before dropping his head onto his desk with a bang. He could not comprehend how Ash managed to attract someone like that and it wasn't the first time...

Meanwhile Sabrina and Ash were already outside, walking towards the area which held the highest concentration of injured pokemon. It was quite easy to read the surface thoughts of Nurse Joy, especially since she was working on the topic Sabrina was searching for at that moment. Weaving in between the crowd they quickly reached their destination and after some searching they found their entrance in a dark side alley in the western part of the city.

Ash groaned in annoyance as the sewer water splashed onto his clothes after he dropped down and then glared at Sabrina who had slowed down her drop with telekinesis. Sabrina completely ignored him and his glare and started to move down the sewer, Ash quickly followed after Pikachu gave him a light shock to get him going.

They found the place to be nearly empty and the rare Zubat or Ratatta shied away and ran as soon as they saw them. After what seemed like hours inside the maze they finally found something. The first clues were the dried shoe marks inside the 'mud' on the floor. The pathways and walls started to appear completely dry, surely done artificially. After that it was quite easy to find what they were looking for as Sabrina used her telepathy to pick up any stray thoughts in the area. Ash grew angry when she told him it were cries of tortured pokemon that were leading them to the source.

What they saw was shocking even to them, people who have seen a lot before. Hundreds of the local species of pokemon were locked up in cages that lined the walls from floor to ceiling as far as they could see. Things got worse when Sabrina counted at least ten Plasma grunts in the first room and confirmed at least twenty more further on.

"We won't be able to take them straight on; we need a distraction of some sort..." Sabrina mused after they moved back to a safer location. Ash didn't like the idea, it felt wrong in a way to fight like them but he knew that his companion was right. "Kadabra and I should be able to deal with them using telekinesis but we would need to get in close." Ash quickly went through all the abilities his pokemon could use until he came up with an idea.

"Would smoke screen do the job?" Sabrina pondered for a moment before grabbed one of his pokeballs and as quietly as possible released the pokemon within.

Quilava was quite confused when he got out of the pokeball. First the young professor told him that Ash needed him again and then he got released inside some very dark sewer. Looking around he finally found Ash who immediately kneeled down and hugged him.

"It's good to see you again Quilava." Ash spoke in a hushed voice. The fire type quickly got that they needed to be quiet and settled on licking his trainer's face as a greeting. "I'll need you to use smoke screen to distract all those grunts." Ash said as he pointed in the direction of the room in question. "You will need to use agility and go behind the cages to get to the other side, after that Sabrina will go in and deal with them." Quilava nodded his head and slowly walked near the wall before taking a peak around the corner. It waited a few seconds before pouncing inside and disappearing from view. Sabrina had to give it to Ash, he didn't pressure his pokemon into evolving and this time it could be what will win them the battle.

Ash moved forward when he heard some shuffling and muffled voices. He motioned for Sabrina to move in after making sure that all the grunts couldn't see anything in the smoke.

"Confuse ray, then knock them out with Psychic." The psychic pokemon nodded once before teleporting in, Sabrina moving in right behind her pokemon. Ash listened in into the silence and after a minute started counting the dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground. He had heard only nine. It was then that he saw one of the plasma grunts try to crawl away. He had expected Sabrina to get him but when nothing happened after a few seconds he knew he had to act.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt but just to paralyze him. Try not to make too much noise." The yellow mouse gave Ash a sharp nod and jumped off his shoulder, cheeks already sparking with electricity. The bolt of electricity was nothing compared to what Pikachu could normally do but it was enough, more than enough, to take the grunt out. Ash winced when he saw the man scream in pain silently for a second before going rigid and unconscious on the cold concrete floor. Next he silently called Quilava to get rid of the smoke and thankfully his pokemon had heard him as the air quickly cleaned out. His eyes grew wide when he saw Sabrina on her hands and knees, barely holding herself up. Nearly instantly he was at her side, helping her up.

"Are you okay? What happened?" While he attacked her with questions she leaned onto him to catch a breath and regain control over her thoughts. She finally answered when Ash stopped speaking.

"I just over did it with my psychic abilities, it had happened before so don't worry but I won't be able to use them on this scale for at least an hour." Ash sighed and helped her sit down in one of the chairs previously occupied by the plasma grunts. When he ensured she would be fine he took Quilava and Pikachu and moved forward into the Plasma base. On the way there he had Pikachu take out two more grunts with Thunderbolt before they even had the chance to fight back. Finally he reached the heart of the whole installation.

The walls were lined with cages again but this time the cages were filled with Eevees. There were at least fifty of them between the two floors and their pained cries mixed together with the noise made by the machinery. In the very centre of the room, on the bottom floor, Ash noticed a glass container which seemed to be also the centre of attention of the scientist working down there. The one thing that was distinctly different was that some of the Eevees held down here were clearly trying to fight back and escape. Slowly he crept backwards until he found something he saw on his way towards the lab. On the wall was what seemed like an electricity box, one big enough to be probably supplying the power to everything down here in the sewers and the area above them. He quickly confirmed his thoughts when Pikachu pointed out the cables mounted only recently, they looked completely out of place as if someone was in a rush.

"Pikachu, you know what to do... Blow it up!" Pikachu grinned and jumped into the box to grab a hold of the cables before releasing all his stored energy. The lights suddenly lit up further than should be possible before exploding into millions of tiny pieces, bathing them in total darkness until Quilava released his flames.

They moved quickly back towards the lab part of the base and Ash quickly confirmed his plan's effectiveness when he heard the screams and shouts of the grunts, it seemed that the normally gentle Eevees did not take well to that brutal treatment and as soon as the cages opened they took their chances for revenge. As soon as Ash moved into the room Quilava had to jump in to block an attack aimed at him. The attacking pokemon stood around two meters tall and had striped red and black skin. The set of very sharp looking teeth and the mad twinkle in its eyes only made Ash more thankful to Quilava.

"Quick attack into flame wheel!" Quilava did not hesitate in filling in the orders and smashed back legs first into the other pokemon's stomach before breathing fire and using its momentum to turn itself into flame wheel. The other pokemon did not get a chance to react as his skin was nearly burned off by the fire, it fell unconscious nearly immediately. Ash shook his head before grabbing his last pokeball and releasing Lucario. The aura pokemon did not seem to react to his unusual surroundings at all, instead looking to Ash and waiting for orders.

"Move in and knock out every plasma grunt or scientist and protect the Eevees. They will probably help you out once they see you are trying to help." All three of his pokemon nodded and jumped into the darkness, Ash knew Lucario would be fine in here and so followed Quilava and Pikachu.

It didn't take long to round up and knock out all the pokemon and their trainers inside here. Their failure lay more in panic rather than Ash or his pokemon as he found that in some cases the grunts fought and knocked out each other in the total darkness. He sent Quilava back to get Sabrina here and unsurprisingly she together with Quilava and Kadabra had teleported in. To Ash she looked fine except for one thing he noticed, she kept rubbing her wrists around the green bracelets as if they were closed too tightly but he did not voice his thoughts. Pikachu managed to bring some light back by powering the emergency lights in the room while Lucario seemed to be quite flustered as the horde of Eevees took a liking to him and continued to follow his every step.

'At least it keeps them occupied..." Ash laughed in his head and Sabrina seemed to have similar thoughts if her constant smirks and giggles meant anything. Everything was fine until Sabrina started to look through the files kept by the scientists and looking at the machinery. Her smile disappeared and her eyes took on a haunted look, one that Ash saw displayed by her for the first time.

"What's wrong? What did you find Sabrina?" Ash asked as he walked up to stand beside her. She took in a long breath to calm herself before answering.

"I have seen this before, all of this. It's Rocket's research but expanded on further than we... they ever tried to go." She hoped that Ash missed her slip up, for him to start asking questions now would do no good for either of them. She sighed and explained further when he asked what the research was about. "The Rockets dabbled in bioengineering, tried to combine pokemon to strengthen them or give them new abilities." Ash nodded, he had hands on experience with one of those experiments. "The Eevees, they thought they were the key as the Eevee's genetic structure is really irregular. That is what allows them to evolve down so many paths and more are appearing every year."

"That is why they were holding all those Eevee's then? But what were they trying to do with them?!" Sabrina dropped the file onto the desk and turned around; Ash followed her eyes and looked towards the centre of the room. The glass holding sphere he saw before, it was broken.

**To Be Continued...**

**Edit:** I have re-uploaded this chapter and replaced the others to fix all those things ye have mentioned. Addressing them one by one; the levels were removed because they shouldn't be there in the first place and so will not appear again, I have no idea how that 'Naruto' found its way here but it was replaced and lastly the poisoned Lucario. I work based on information from bulbapedia and on its status effects page it says that "If a Pokémon under a status ailment (such as a poisoned Cascoon) evolves, the condition will be kept even if the Pokémon gains a new type or Ability that would normally prevent it." and in my case the Lucario was poisoned while he was a Riolu. I still have replaced that part with something that people should be able to deal with, knowing that some people will not bother to read this. In the end all I have to say is to keep it coming, I really do not mind if people put out criticism. Despite this being a low budget production I still want to make it good.

Thanks,

Mat


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Ash slowly approached the broken glass without really knowing what was being held inside before it broke out. Sabrina knew perfectly what it was but did not hold Ash back. She could not sense the pokemon in the near vicinity and that meant it ran away unless this experiment was much more successful than the one she remembered.

Ash ran his fingers and tapped the glass with no actual purpose other than keep himself occupied, he always felt restless if he stayed still for longer than five minutes without falling asleep. Part of him worried about the pokemon that was held in here; surely it must have been hurt and now was trying to escape. It was probably hurt and afraid. He saw Pikachu's ears twitch on the other side of the room and second later Quilava had done the same as Pikachu, they both heard something. First thing Ash thought of was to thank Lucario when they got out of this as the fighting type jumped right in and pulled his trainer to the ground just as a barrage of razor leaves flew over his head and impaled themselves into the far wall behind him. When Ash looked up to see his attacker he only saw a pair of golden brown eyes vanish into the shadows.

Everyone in the room was put on high alert as Sabrina and Ash realized that the pokemon had not left the room and was not friendly in any way. Now back to back Sabrina and Ash were waiting for the next attack. Pikachu was stuck in place to keep the power and so the lights on. The Eevees though... it seemed that their bout of courage had ended and seeing that their protector, Lucario, was busy they congregated in a corner and chattered loudly in what seemed like fear. Kadabra's eyes glowed blue as he stopped another ranged attack, this time a hail of pin missiles charged with electricity.

"I can't find it Ash, whatever it is it's managing to hide from my mind..." Sabrina said in a grim tone that made Ash swallow hard. In the time they spent together he had seen her serious but there was always a hint of mirth or humour that he had brought back to her years ago but now there was nothing. It probably was the fact that her greatest weapon and talent was not working for her.

They both could feel the air go colder just a bit more than it was before. A chill swept along the ground just as something lunged straight at Ash from the shadows. This time both Sabrina and Kadabra reacted and managed to catch the pokemon with telekinesis. Ash slowly forced his eyes to open, after he closed them to brace himself for impact, and was surprised to see a Glaceon. A Glaceon that looked so similar to the one May owned but was so much different if the feral glint in its eyes or the predatory smirk showing off the readied ice fangs said anything. As Ash released a sigh of relief Sabrina's eyes widened, this wasn't over.

The Glaceon's smirk widened as much as the psychic bonds allowed him before he started to shake and convulse within his bonds. Ash could not believe his eyes as the Glaceon right before him turned into an Umbreon within seconds. Sabrina could not continue to hold him up with telekinesis as Umbreon dark nature proved to be too much. Ash reacted immediately when he saw the dark energy formed within Umbreon's open jaws, he was about to launch a dark pulse.

"Lucario, force palm before he finishes the attack!" Ash shouted and only saw a golden streak as Lucario spun into place in front of him just as the dark pulse fired. Ash himself turned around and pushed Sabrina and himself to the ground as the two attacks collided.

Lucario was barely affected by the dark type attack but the shockwave was more than enough to trash nearly everything in a five meter radius. Umbreon didn't fare as well though as the force palm went right through the dark pulse and hit him right on, sending the Eeveelution right into a wall.

"Sabrina, are you okay?" Was the first thing she heard once the ringing in her ears stopped completely. As Ash helped her up to her feet she took a glance at the room. Pikachu was still powering the lights but by the sour look on his face she had a feeling that he was angry at himself for not being able to help Ash at all. Kadabra was using psychic to move rubble that could potentially fall on the Eevees and Lucario was tending to Quilava who was apparently injured by some debris. The only one missing one was the Umbreon. Only an indent in the wall and some dust was left in the place where they last saw him. She immediately started scanning the room with both her eyes and psychic abilities but found nothing.

"Don't bother, Lucario and Kadabra checked the whole place before you woke up. It's gone." That was when they heard loud voices coming from the same sewer they came through. Sabrina grabbed Ash's arm and started to drag him away and he would have allowed for it if not for something or rather someone he just noticed. It seemed that some of the grunts that they had immobilized and left on the floor got stuck under the debris. Ash saw only a pale hand limply hanging out from underneath the rubble.

"Ash! We have to go!" She would have to explain everything to him later as for now he seemed to be completely out of it. Sabrina, as quickly as she could, dragged Ash into what seemed like another exit out of the room while all their pokemon followed. The room darkened completely behind them and when Sabrina thought they were safe enough she finally stopped. Fortunately for them an exit out of the sewers was right over their heads.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Quilava and Lucario did not protest when it was her that returned them to their pokeballs. It was after all much easier to walk through the middle of a city with only the two of them and Pikachu rather than their whole team. Ash seemed to be even less responsive than before, he stayed completely quiet the whole journey back and did not react to anything she or Pikachu did. When they entered the pokemon centre it was not the same calm place they left as Nurse Joy and what seemed like all the medical staff and their pokemon where packing up and ready to leave.

"Oh it's you two! If you need any help then Audino is staying behind to run the centre for now." The pink, floppy eared pokemon shouted in confirmation from behind the counter and readjusted its nurse hat. Sabrina smiled and nodded and pushed Ash along. She had managed to catch some surface thoughts on their way in and it seemed that one of the people they heard in the sewers was the city's gym leader – Burgh. At least now she could tell Ash that all the pokemon would be safe. After making their way to the lift and getting to Ash's room she made him sit down on the bed. Pikachu immediately jumped down and lightly tugged on Ash's jacket to gain his attention. When that didn't work Pikachu's cheeks sparked with electricity before Ash got a taste of a light thundershock, Sabrina had noted interestingly that Ash must have built up a resistance to such shocks over time as he did not scream or shout and instead turned his sight to Pikachu.

"Ash, what's wrong?" As soon as he heard her voice his head whipped to her but this time it looked like he would talk.

"I-I killed them..." Years of having no emotion ensured that she didn't overreact to what she heard. He blamed himself for those grunts.

"Ash, you didn't kill anyone. They were criminals; they knew what they were jumping into when they signed up to become part of plasma. If you have to blame someone then blame that Umbreon but even he was created by them... you could say that they killed themselves." She knew he was listening, that he understood but he still refused to look at her. "Frankly I think you are too honourable and nice to even seriously harm someone..." Finally she saw a small smile appear on his face. "You should get some sleep Ash; you need to be ready for the gym tomorrow after all." All it took was a small push on his shoulder for him to fall over and onto the pillow. After covering him up Sabrina brought her hand up to his forehead and with a flash of her powers she ensured that Ash would not wake up until morning.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

When Ash woke up he started getting worse... that is until Pikachu zapped him. It was then that he realized that last night was the best sleep he had gotten in a long time. He couldn't remember what he had dreamt about but it surely must have been pleasant. After taking a shower and putting on new clothes his stomach decided to remind him that it needed to be filled. That was a priority above all others and that is how Sabrina found Ash or rather the piles of both empty and full plates that covered the table in front of Ash.

"Are you ready to face Castelia city's gym?" Sabrina asked as she surveyed the table before picking up a plate filled with pancakes.

"Mhm...Hm" Ash quickly swallowed his food after seeing that he couldn't talk at all with his current meal. "Of course I am! I'm always ready especially if it's a fight for another badge!" Sabrina smiled behind her tea cup as Ash's eyes seemed to shine with determination. He was really set on winning this league it seemed. She patiently waited for him to finish all the food before getting up. On their way out of the pokemon centre they passed a couple of the rooms where the Eevees, Zubats, Ratattas and all the other pokemon from the sewers were brought to yesterday. What they did not notice was a strange glint in the eyes of one of the Eevees as the cute and innocent eyes followed them down the corridor before they disappeared out the door and into the main hall.

**To Be Continued...**

**Note:** For now I'm uploading this chapter as is but in a day or two I will probably combine the chapters together where it makes sense and put them up back up again. While I will be doing that I will also fix any other mistakes I find, perhaps rewrite some things that I did not like. Next actual update will be up within the week and after that they will probably slow down again.

Thanks for reading and keep the reviews coming.

Mat


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

It was unexpected to see so much greenery in the middle of a metropolis like Castelia city but somehow they made it fit. The path leading up to the gym was surrounded by a large field of grass and flowers in nearly every colour imaginable. The trees that grew near the street must have worked as some sort of a buffer as the area was nearly completely silent, except for the occasional sounds made by the pokemon living around the gym.

Ash glanced to his left where Sabrina was walking. Despite trying to look as calm and serene as always he could clearly see she wasn't feeling well.

"Is everything alright?" He asked after stopping just out of range of the automatic doors that led into the gym. For a moment it seemed like she would wave it off but in the end decided to tell him what was wrong.

"Psychics and bug pokemon do not go together well. Normally I would have been able to fight it off but... I suppose I'm still tired." Ash's eyes widened for a second as he listened to her. He had no idea that bug pokemon could have this much of an effect.

"You should have stayed in the pokemon centre then..." Sabrina shook her head and stopped his 'rant' before it started although it felt nice to have someone actually care.

"It's fine... you still need someone to keep you in line." She smirked when his face turned into a frown fuelled by fake childish anger. "There is no time to play around. Fight as if this was the final match in a league. He is going to underestimate you, think that you are a rookie but we both know that is not true." This time the smirk was shared on both sides and with a sharp nod and confidence in his step Ash entered the Castelia city gym.

While the previous gyms had a secondary purpose as a nightclub and a school, this one was obviously meant to be a straight up gym. The fighting field was clearly marked off in the middle of the building. Pikachu dropped off from Ash's shoulder and ran out of view. He was about to shout out for someone as the place appeared empty until a man jumped out of one of the nearby trees and landed right in front of Ash. He would have been startled if not for Sabrina's silent warning. The man whipped his cloak away in an overly dramatic fashion and took a small bow.

"Welcome to the Castelia city gym... Uh-huh I'm sorry but I do not know your name..." Ash smiled and pushed his hand forward for a handshake which was quickly returned.

"Ash Ketchum! I came here to challenge the gym."

"Ah, of course you are! You will have to excuse me but a two versus two battle is all I have the time for right now. I sent all my staff to help the police and pokemon centre with the plasma hideout... oh; I don't think I should be talking about this..." The gym leader shook his head as he and Ash walked towards the centre of the field. "Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet... the name is Burgh." Quickly they made their way to the opposite sides of the field. Pikachu ran out from the bushes behind ash and up to his feet, hoping for a good fight but as Ash looked up to Sabrina he knew that there was no point in playing around. There would be lots of time to train and prove themselves... this was just another gym...

"I can referee if needed. I used to be a gym leader in Kanto." Sabrina said and stepped up to the spot when Burgh gained a slightly sheepish look on his face when no one announced the start of the battle. "This will be a two vs. two match between Gym leader Burgh and Ash Ketchum for the..."

Burgh smiled and finished for her. "Insect badge"

Sabrina nodded and continued. "...Gym leader goes first."

Burgh reached for a pokeball and with a quick movement released his first pokemon. It was pretty small and blue in colour with a small horn at the top of its head. The Pokedex had called it Karrablast. It was a tiny moment of hesitation where Ash's mind went to sending out Lucario to let him get experience and such but his hand moved as on its own and grabbed another pokeball.

Quilava appeared out of the pokeball and dropped onto four feet, flames on its back already roaring on full power. Burgh looked startled, probably not have expecting a pokemon like this from what he probably assumed to be some rookie trainer.

"Karrablast, start off with a headbutt." The little blue pokemon somehow managed to nod and charged head on.

"It won't be able to stop now, flame wheel straight into it!" Quilava jumped into a dash, its speed increasing to full in a moment and just before it reached the middle of the field it jumped less than a meter into the air and started spinning, the flames quickly forming the attack.

On the other side Burgh was already shouting for Karrablast to stop his attack and endure the flame wheel but it was no use. Quilava was much faster and slammed into the overly-focused bug type. The only thing left in the aftermath was a perfectly fine looking Quilava and a charred and unconscious bug-type. Sabrina gave the point to Ash and told Burgh to release his next pokemon.

"Could it be time to bug out of here? No, no, I refuse to be squashed!" The gym leader shouted as he released his second and last pokemon. Leavanny stood on two 'feet' and was covered by what seemed to be an armoured coat made of leaves. It was at least twice as tall as Karrablast has been but just its body shape showed that it would be much faster. "Leavanny should prove to be a much better challenge for you, Ash"

"Quilava, start with quick attack!" Again Quilava burst into a dash, changing spots on the field at a pace which was nearly impossible to follow.

"Charge up struggle bug and be ready to follow up with grass whistle." The bug pokemon focused for a moment and just before Quilava's attack connected it released a dome of red energy, pushing both pokemon away from each other. It was then that ash noticed the next technique Leavanny was about to use.

"Quilava! Cover your ears, don't listen to the whistle!" The counter seemed to work if only a little as the fire pokemon did not fall asleep and instead was only slightly dazed. "It's charging an Aerial ace, match it with your own!" The pure speed and power of the attack was enough to lift both pokemon off the ground but as the two collided Quilava proved to be more resilient as it came out on top and threw Leavanny into the air. As Burgh called out for Razor leaf Ash called out his command. "Finish it off with Eruption while it's still above you!" As Leavanny fired off the barrage of spinning razor sharp leaves a spire of fire burst from Quilava's back. It spiralled up and swallowed the grass/bug type whole.

Even before the poor Leavanny had dropped to the ground Sabrina's hand was already rising up in Ash's favour and Burgh was taking out his pokeball.

"Quilava wins. Ash Ketchum is the winner."

The three trainers met in the middle of the field where Burgh and Ash exchanged a handshake again. Burgh shook his head but still he was smiling. "It seems my muse has abandoned me, otherwise I would have known to not underestimate you at first... nonetheless; I think this will fit you quite well..." Ash took the insect badge with a grin and placed it in the badge box before hugging kneeling down and hugging Quilava, after all it was thanks to him. "Be careful when you leave... team Plasma is still at large and you should be aware of that, unlike what the head of the Police department may think." Everyone would have been able to hear the bitterness in Burgh's voice. It seemed that the Castelia Police was trying to hush up the return of plasma.

For a moment Sabrina thought that Ash might break on the spot, she could feel the guilt well up until his sense of justice kicked in and a new emotion swelled up, one that she had not felt from ash yet. It was revenge. Ash squared his shoulders and his jaw tightened lightly as he answered.

"We know about Plasma... and I think we will be just fine."

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Now we can either take the bus to Nimbasa city or walk along the same road and take a detour near the desert resort." Sabrina said as she and Ash left the pokemon centre and started to head towards the north end of town to where it connected with route four.

Ash scratched his head as he thought and finally shook his head. "I don't think we are really prepared to travel through the desert." He looked nostalgic as he continued. "I wish Brock was here, he was always prepared for everything..."

"The path to Nimbasa city is not really a desert anymore. Apparently there are hostels within half a day of walking scattered along route four." Sabrina answered as she continued to look at Ash's map and tried to figure out where the next plasma base could be. Sabrina lost in her thoughts and Ash conversing quietly with Pikachu, they both nearly walked into a man who just walked out of the building connecting the city to route four.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to bump into you." The blonde man said with an easy smile and continued walking on. Ash would have done the same but stopped when he saw that Sabrina was standing in place. He took a startled step back when her eyes flashed green with psychic energy.

"He is part of Plasma." Ash's body was already turning in the direction where the man had gone and Pikachu's cheeks were sparking with energy when Sabrina placed her hand on his shoulder and shook her head. Immediately a calming sensation filled his whole being. "No, I have a feeling that we will be meeting him soon and under much better circumstances..." Ash sighed, picked Pikachu back up, and followed after Sabrina towards Nimbasa city.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Back in Kanto Giovanni snarled at the man on the other side of the video call. His day was not going well and now this fool was refusing his request.

"Surge! You owe me and you know it so shut up and listen!" That only angered the gym leader more.

"Here comes the shocker! I don't work for you anymore and if you try anything I will make sure to bring you down with me!" The lieutenant's voice thundered through the speakers and his face got closer to the camera as his hands nearly crushed the table in the iron grip. Giovanni's snarl only turned sicklier.

"Ha, we both know that I would come out on top so save those empty threats... This will be your final assignment. You are to get rid of a certain someone; you should know her quite well..." He pressed a button on the console without even waiting for a response and the image appeared on Surge's screen. His normally tanned face blanched as he saw the picture of one of his past _co-workers_. "The kid who travels with her. He is to stay unharmed." Surge looked quite shocked before he released a booming laugh.

"What? Don't tell me he is your kid or something..." He managed to get out before Giovanni slammed his fist onto his table.

"You know very well that I have only one _son_..." Surge shook his head. He shouldn't have brought that one up. No matter how he disliked the man on the other side of the video call he still held respect for the power he held. As he turned the call off and spun the chair around, Raichu jumped onto his lap. He gave it a pat on the head before looking up, his eyes wistful.

"So... Unova, eh?"

**To Be Continued...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Ash still could not wrap this around his head. The landscape continued to mix the greenery, probably artificially planted by Burgh, and the deep sands of the desert. In the middle of all that was a road bigger than any he has seen before. Banishing those thoughts he tried to focus on the task at hand which was his training with Lucario. They were about three days away from Nimbasa city and probably their next meeting with plasma. That was why he was sitting with Lucario on the floor of his room in one of the trainer hostels they came across. Arms outstretched forward with palms opened straight up, mirroring Lucario's pose. He was trying to focus but it just wasn't working.

"This was much easier when I had the gloves..." Ash said with a disappointed sigh and tried to pull back when Lucario smacked him on the arm and barked at him to stay in the position and continue trying. Grumbling about being hungry but with fear of angering the fighting type, especially after asking for aura training in the first place, Ash obliged and tried again. And again, and again, and again...

That is how Sabrina would have found him, working hard and all that, if he had not fallen asleep. She was about to leave when ash started to mutter something in his sleep and a few seconds later started to turn around wildly. Pikachu must have been woken up by that as he unburied himself from his blanket and was about to shock Ash awake. Sabrina stopped him quietly and when he turned his questioning eyes to her she shook her head and motioned for him to just stay where he was. She tried to get a hold of Ash gently at first but the more she tried the more he trashed around in the bed and so finally she used telekinesis to hold him still. She placed her hand on his head and as a flash of red emanated around the room she stumbled back.

"I-I think I overdid it..." Sabrina managed to get out as she fell into the only chair in the room and lost consciousness. That night Ash slept better than any before; no dreams and no nightmares bothered him.

Ash mumbled something, still very much asleep, as something shook him. The shaking repeated but this time much stronger and his eyes snapped open. Pikachu was nearly right in his face and Ash was sure that if he did not get up right now he would be in pain. He jumped out of bed without warning and Pikachu tumbled down into the sheets and blankets. As Ash looked around for his clothes he quickly realised that he still had them on from yesterday and that Sabrina was sleeping in the chair by the window.

"Sabrina, wake up..." He reached out to shake her shoulder as he called out to her but as soon as his hand made contact with her, Sabrina's eyes snapped open, glowing with energy and just for a moment he thought she would attack him. Slowly the energy dimmed down and the only thing left was something that Ash had not yet seen or had expected to see. Sabrina was scared.

Getting to the main lobby of the house did not take long but the silence was killing him. The fact that he was no good with emotions or women did not help. Save someone from a sinking temple or jump in front of an attack made by legendary pokemon, that he could do. Inside the lobby the housemaster and the other current occupant where watching the news on the television. As they got closer he could make out that it was a live transmission from Nimbasa city.

"Our weather research sector has reported that the earthquakes experienced this morning will not return, as of now a concrete source has not been found. In other news; the police have not yet made a statement about the explosive release of energy to the west of the city..." Ash tuned out the news anchor when images of the explosion came up on the screen. They were unfocused, probably made by some passerby with a Pokegear or some similar device, but even then he could see that it was not a normal explosion. The colour of the energy released in a pillar reaching into the sky just outside the city was quite familiar. He took a quick look at Sabrina and saw that she seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"We have to go." Ash nodded and five minutes later they were ready to go, the owner was more interested in the news than checking their rooms for damage or stolen possessions, he only took the money and went back to watching the TV. Sabrina was looking at the braces that were closed around her wrists as she considered the options. Walking there would take too long and getting a bus would be impossible until at least tomorrow when they would reach the pokemon centre located halfway between the cities. That left only one option.

"Kadabra." The pokemon said in a bored tone as Sabrina released him. Ash turned around when he heard the release sound.

"We have to get there fast and investigate it before the police cover up any evidence that might be useful to us." She saw that Ash looked a bit uncomfortable at the idea of possibly entering another plasma base but she pressed on. "The fastest way of getting there right now is by teleport. I have managed to get a good enough image of the city to get us there..." She looked him straight in the eyes and Ash found that he could not look away. "Ash, promise me that no matter what you will remain calm."

He had no idea why she would ask him to do promise something like this and part of him wanted to argue that he was always calm but in the end he just sighed and nodded. "I promise..." That satisfied her and after nodding to Kadabra and taking a step forward Sabrina grabbed Ash and pulled him towards her as she focused on teleporting. With the combined forces of Sabrina and Kadabra the group disappeared into thin air.

A few meters away a Jolteon skidded to a stop and hid in the shade of one of the trees. His self assumed target had managed to get away again. As anger started to overtake him his breathing became more ragged and different fur colours rippled across him like a wave and his eye colour changed with every twitch until finally it settled on the form of an Espeon. Maybe he could sniff out where they went...

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Mew, how many times did I tell you to stay close to me?" Mewtwo called out calmly through their psychic link as he observed what he had just done. He had silently promised that he would not hurt anyone ever again unless it was self defence but... he just could not have left this alone. He was happy in Unova, living nearby Black city and visiting Mew at the tree of life from time to time. He ignored plasma completely as they ignored him but then they decided to mess with things they should not have touched, same as Giovanni did all those years ago.

Mew could see and feel that her friend was troubled again. She flew over to him and twirled around on her bubble before finally flicking Mewtwo on the head with her tail.

"They should be here soon enough. Be patient, Mew." Mew made an annoyed sound and tried to cross her arms but their length made it impossible to do so. Mewtwo could not help but chuckle, his little friend would never disappoint in amusing him but he was feeling similar to her. "I know; it will be nice to see him."

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

As soon as they flashed back into 'existence' Ash was forced to grab Sabrina who was not able to stand up on her own. Kadabra had already recalled himself and so Ash was left with Sabrina and Pikachu. As he held her up he remembered what she had asked of him before they left.

"Just... stay calm." A few breaths in and out was enough for the moment. Taking a quick look around Ash saw that they were in some alley of sort. Pikachu trotted across the ground and towards the street and after taking a look around he pointed to the left.

"Is it a pokemon centre?" He smiled with relief when Pikachu nodded excitedly. "What would she do..." That was the next step; gently he sat her down against the wall and decided to try to wake her up before anyone found them. They were trying to keep a low profile and a man holding an unconscious woman in a dark alley was certainly suspicious. His efforts did not go in vain because in a matter of minutes she was conscious enough to walk, with him supporting her, to the pokemon centre. Nurse joy eyed them strangely when he asked for the rooms but in the end let them through. After all Nimbasa city was the heart of leisure and entertainment so coming back from a night of partying should not have looked that weird.

He could feel her laugh silently as he pulled her up the stairs. "We keep finding ourselves in those situations..." Ash couldn't help but smile at that.

"Blame it on me. Trouble always had a way of finding me." His face fell as his thoughts turned back to the state she was in when they arrived and that was not the first time it happened. "Why... What's wrong with your... abilities?"

"I-I will explain after we are done with what we came here for." Ash wanted to press on but the dejected tone she spoke in made him give up, for now at least.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Lt. Surge grinned wildly as he jumped off the ramp of the cargo plane he arrived in. The sun was glaring right into his face but he took it in stride as he threw his bag over his shoulder and continued walking forward, cargo workers jumping out of the way of the giant of a man.

"Rai?" Raichu asked as they got off the runway. Surge only took a large breath of air in and chuckled.

"Sure feels like home, Raichu."

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
